Does window sex equal winning for Blue Jays?

A couple (the ones on the left) put themselves on display in a Renaissance hotel window during a Blue Jays game a few years ago at the Rogers Centre. Sex in the window during Jays games was a common happening when the club was in the playoffs and Mike Rutsey wonders if that pasttime should return? (Toronto Sun files)

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There have been plenty of theories floated through the years about why the Blue Jays have not been in the post-season since 1993.

We’ll give you another one — not enough sex.

Hey, we don’t mean the players and, on that topic, we have no idea of how they’re doing.

We mean the fans, the exhibitionists that used to go at it in the centre-field windows of the hotel — now a Renaissance — that features a whack of suites with picture-window views of the field.

Back in the late 1980s and early ’90s when the Blue Jays were perennial contenders, people having sex in the windows of the hotel was a common occurrence.

But not these days.

I mean, are the two somehow connected?

Do couples have to start ramping up their libidos in the hotel to get the Jays going again?

Would that be a sign that they’ve turned a corner and are headed for the promised land of a post-season berth?

Adam Lind has been with the big-league club since 2006 and he hasn’t seen a thing, not as much as a kiss.

Neither has Casey Janssen, the Jays closer who, like Lind, broke into the bigs in 2006.

‘I’ve heard stories about it but I haven’t seen it,” Janssen said before Sunday’s game against the Tampa Bay Rays. “I’m surprised it hasn’t happened more. It’s a great opportunity (if you get your rocks off being an exhibitionist).

“I mean, you can streak the field or do that. I think I know where I’d want to be.”

So, there it is Jays fans, if you really want to see the Jays make the post-season, start steaming up those hotel windows. Start humping!

WON’T LET IT GO

One of the story lines from Saturday’s Jays victory was the fact that the game was played under protest by Tampa Bay, the result of the umpires granting John Gibbons the right to call for a review of a Mark Buehrle pickoff in the fourth inning. Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon was disputing the fact that a replay was allowed, that by the definition of the rule a replay can’t start if the pitcher (Buehrle) is on the rubber and the batter (Yunel Escobar) in the box. The umpires ruled otherwise, the runner, Wil Myers ruled out and the game played under protest.

While the Jays believe that Major League Baseball will rule in their favour, Maddon believes he is in the right and had a conversation Sunday morning with Joe Torre, MLB’s executive vice-president of baseball operations.

“The thing that I was told originally about yesterday was that that’s not contestable because it is involved with replay,” Maddon started off Sunday.

“But that’s not what I got from Joe right now, the fact that as far as I was concerned, it’s two separate issues. It had nothing to do with replay. It had everything to do with getting to replay. It’s like two separate issues.

“The rule is: Pitcher on the rubber, batter in the box (and then you are too late to ask for a replay).”

He was asked if, in his conversation with Torre, he had the impression the protest was a valid one?

“Yes, I did,” Maddon replied.

Well, we’ll see where this one goes.

YOUTH WILL BE SERVED

Year in and year out, the Tampa Bay Rays have one of the youngest rotations in the big leagues. This season is no different and with the trade of David Price, 28, for Drew Smyly, 25, the eldest member of the rotation is Jeremy Hellickson, who is all of 27. Of the other starters, Chris Archer is 25, Alex Cobb 26, Jake Odorizzi 24, and the injured Matt Moore 25.

Overseeing the staff is the Rays pitching coach and baby-sitter for the past seven seasons, Jim Hickey.

The Blue Jays are trending in that direction with Marcus Stroman, 23, Aaron Sanchez 22 and Drew Hutchison, who turned 24 on Sunday, expected to be part of the 2015 rotation. Sean Nolin, 24, and Daniel Norris, 21, should be knocking on the door.

Hickey was asked if there are any tricks to the trade when dealing with a young staff?

“My very first job with the Houston Astros over 21/2 seasons was with a lot more veteran pitchers. But in seven seasons here, it’s been a continual run of under 25-year-old pitchers and I don’t think there’s anything that requires I do my job any differently,” Hickey said.

“It’s just something that we’re all accustomed to and is something that’s a part of our culture.

“Everybody’s on board. We have a nice program in place starting with the minor leagues, have a lot of continuity down there with the pitching coaches and the player development people. All the guys (pitchers) that come through here know what is expected of them, so it’s really been pretty easy and to top that off we’ve had a great group of guys, we always have, very very few bad apples over the course of seven seasons here which I think is unusual, too.”

SO MUCH FOR EASING IN, EH, SERGIO?

It wasn’t quite the return that Sergio Santos envisioned.

Sent back to triple-A a month ago to work on his fastball command, the Blue Jays reliever was in the thick of things in the meltdown 10th inning against the Rays on Sunday.

After walking the first batter — a cardinal sin — Santos watched helplessly as Nolan Reimold butchered a fly ball to right that resulted in runners on second and third and no outs, as opposed to a runner on first and one out.

An Evan Longoria single through the drawn-in infield scored the go-ahead run in the Jays’ 2-1 loss.

“It’s baseball and it happens,” Santos said of Nolan’s error. “I shouldn’t have walked (Ben) Zobrist to start the inning and everything kind of happened from there.”

Still, the botched fly has to play with his mind.

“When Zobrist was going (running on the fly), I was thinking maybe we can double him up, get a quick catch and throw,” Santos said. “Reimold has a good arm, an accurate arm, but once it happens your mind has to shift and get into get-outs mode. Unfortunately, they scored one.”

It’s been that type of season for Santos.

“You can drive yourself crazy if you play the would-have, should-have, could-haves,” he said. “It kind of stinks because it’s just like everything for me that could go wrong in an inning has somehow found a way to go wrong. But tomorrow’s a new day and a new game.”